| Lend your voice to counter the chilling effect of anti-history education laws and book bans. More than half of students in the United States today are prevented from learning the truth about history by laws, executive orders, corporate textbooks, and high-stakes testing. Book bans are just the tip of the iceberg. As Jesse Hagopian shared, |
| Education censorship is a warning sign of a deeper authoritarian threat — one that aims to control how young people think. When the government tries to erase the truth about racism, colonialism, LGBTQIA+ identity, and the climate crisis, they’re not just closing the door on the past — they’re locking students out of the future. Teaching truth hands the keys to the youth, allowing them to unlock their potential to create thriving communities rooted in solidarity. |
There are events scheduled in Anchorage, Atlanta, Berkeley, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cleveland, D.C., Gainesville, Greensboro, Harlem, Iowa City, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Maplewood (New Jersey), Ocean View (Hawaii), Philadelphia, Providence, Rincón (Puerto Rico), Salem (Ohio), Seattle, South Hadley, Tucson, and many more communities. Sites in 11 cities are screening the documentary Banned Together.
The events are led by classroom teachers; teacher educators; librarians; NAACP chapters; Red, Wine, & Blue members; union locals, and more. The venues include libraries, museums, parks, public squares, bookstores, farmers’ markets, Pride festivals, Juneteenth celebrations, schools, voting centers, and more. Below are a few examples.
| We encourage EVERYONE to defend the freedom to learn. Here are four easy options. |
| Find an event near you and show up. |
| Go to a historic site and take a photo with a Teach Truth sign that you make or download. Share on social media with #TeachTruth. |
Share quotes about the struggle for Black education. Make public the history that is being censored. We offer dozens of downloadable quotes like the two below, and a timeline.
| Record a statement of solidarity with educators and students. |
Co-sponsors, children’s authors, and event hosts spoke at our Day of Action Briefing about why it is important to challenge the attacks on teaching history and book bans.
| This is more than a day of action; it’s a line in the sand. We will not lie to children, we will not erase the past, we will welcome every student, every one of them, and we will not back down. — Princess R. Moss, National Education Association, vice-president It requires courage these days to uphold our love of reading, our love of knowledge, our love of the future for our children, and our love of the future for this country. We must be loud about our values. That is how we will navigate this moment and that is how we will win. — Anna Castro, Transgender Law Center, principal narrative strategist Every day we make a compromise out of fear is another day we sentence ourselves to live through more of it. Every time we sit when we ought to stand, we are making it all the more impossible for the children we serve to see that they have power in their voices and in their hearts. — Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Authors Against Book Bans, founding member and national leader |
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 